53P/Van Biesbroeck (0053P)
TRY AGAIN 2027
Type: Periodic
Perihelion date: 30 April 2016
Perihelion distance (q): 2.4
Aphelion distance (Q) : 8.4
Period (years): 12.6
Eccentricity (e): 0.55
Inclination (i): 6.6
JPL orbit diagram
COBS lightcurve
During an unsuccessful attempt to recover the asteroid 1953 GC, George van
Biesbroeck (Yerkes Observatory, Wisconsin, USA) discovered this comet on a 16-
minute exposure obtained with the 24-inch reflector on 1 September 1954. He
estimated the magnitude as 14.5, and described the comet as round, well condensed,
and 8 arc seconds across.
Stan Milbourn and George Lea calculated the best recovery orbit, and the comet was
recovered in May 1965. Back calculating the orbit shows that it made a moderately
close approach to Jupiter in 1850, which reduced q from 2.7 to 2.4 au and reversed
the nodes. The pre 1850 orbit is like that of 42P/Neujmin 3 and it is likely that they are
fragments of the same parent.
Observations (VEMag = visual equivalent magnitude)
Date
10x10 mag
Error
VEmag
Coma '
16-Feb-15
18.55
0.39
17.7
0.2
01-Mar-15
18.16
0.12
17.5
0.2
11-Mar-15
17.87
0.11
16.1
0.2
18-Mar-15
17.93
0.03
17.8
0.2
08-Apr-15
17.21
0.17
15.0
0.2
15-Apr-15
17.48
0.04
17.1
0.2
22-Apr-15
17.62
0.05
17.5
0.2
22-May-15
17.31
0.11
16.5
0.2
10-Jun-15
17.47
0.15
17.0
0.2
20-Jun-15
17.41
0.12
17.2
0.2
05-Jul-15
17.39
0.12
16.8
0.2
20-Jul-15
17.43
0.09
17.3
0.2
17-May-16
15.35
0.12
12.3
0.5
31-May-16
15.40
0.02
13.6
0.6
11-Jul-16
14.83
0.01
13.0
0.8
23-Aug-16
14.93
0.01
13.0
0.6
30-Aug-16
15.00
0.03
12.8
0.9
06-Sep-16
15.27
0.01
13.4
0.7
19-Sep-16
15.62
0.01
13.6
0.5
30-Sep-16
15.78
0.01
13.7
0.5
28-Oct-16
16.30
0.01
14.1
0.2
24-Nov-16
16.71
0.01
15.1
0.3
27-Dec-16
17.05
0.07
14.8
0.3
08-Jan-17
17.29
0.22
15.7
0.2
31-Jul-17
18.83
0.09
17.8
0.2